After leaving Atlantic Records behind to strike out on his own with his Coast House label, the Australian singer is gearing up to release his latest effort, appropriately titled Free. The independent artist can now basically do whatever he wants -- including releasing his new single, "Flower" -- and lucky for us, he's now giving a peek behind the scenes at life in the studio.

MTV News has an exclusive video of Cody (alongside co-writer/producer Cisco Adler) hard at work on the album, which will be out this summer. And on Wednesday, I hopped on the phone with Cody to chat about what he's been up to.

"I sort of wanted to give people, not just my fans, but people in general, a better understanding of where my mind is at creatively," Cody told MTV News. "I didn't realize how frustrated I was until now, feeling so free to do whatever I want and not have to conform to any stereotypes."

Making the decision to branch out as an independent artist wasn't as daunting as you might think. in fact, for Cody, it was "natural."

"I wasn't scared whatsoever because I know it's the right move for me," he said. "It feels so natural and so organic and I'm so stoked to be able to do something and hopefully have other people do the same thing because I don't think people realize how tied up they could be by the system. And establishing my own label, I'm really improving and creating some really, really true and pure music and I'm really proud to put it out."

With the help of Cisco, who Cody says has been a "really inspiring" person in his life, the Aussie pop start will release a few new songs before his album drops. Simpson's new vision already has the support of some famous friends, from Selena Gomez tweeting how "proud" she was of him to Miley Cyrus helping out by creating the cover art for his "Flower" single.

"For a lot of people it's the first they are ever going to hear from me and that's what's relieving to me," he said. "I have a fresh start and now having turned 18 and this symbolic age of independence and a new phase of my life it feels like the very first album I've ever done, and it feels like the first song I've ever released. It feels very new, very fresh and I feel very enthusiastic."